In Short:It is a series of three documentaries about dance and technology bringing to light the current development of movement research, meaning and context. The overall title is “Dance Plus”.THE PROJECT:The 1st Documentary is about Jeannette Ginslov who stems from Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the Founder and Director of Walking Gusto Productions multimedia dance theatre, a choreographer, video dance maker and multimedia artist. Her video dance works are presented locally and internationally. Her current work “Sanctum” is an interactive, multi sensory Screendance work that exposes the heinous crime of FGM or Female Genital Mutilation and attempts to elicit the viewer’s response of empathy to an act of cruelty perpetrated on women. Sanctum emphasises technology serving content and audience reception. The Screendance medium will capture the experience and sensation of the restricted dancing body interacting with sites of interactivity that amplifies the kinesthetic and emotional content in order to shape Screendance reception.The 2nd documentary is about Arthur Elsenaar’s “Artifacial” which is an Algorithmic Facial Choreography. “Artifacial Expression” is an art and research project that investigates the computer controlled human face as a medium for kinetic art and develops algorithms for facial choreography. Besides the Leonardo Award for Excellence Elsenaar received an "Anerkennung" from Prix Ars Electronica for his work into facial choreography. Most recently The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has acquired the algorithmic facial choreography piece entitled "Face Shift" for their permanent collection.The 3rd documentary is about the award winning Katrina McPherson and Simon Fildes who have been collaborating on single screen video dance works and web-dances at hyperchoreography.org, for over 10 years, but their latest project MOVE-ME.com combines their individual interests in dance and interactive installations that takes them in a new direction with significant international success. The move-me booth is a special video booth touring to theatre foyers, festival venues, arts centres, galleries, universities and dance agencies. Over 10,000 people have entered the booth to try it out and 2000 completed video clips have been recorded and are on the website. The booth tour visited 35 venues in the UK and Holland to April 2008 including Sadler’s Wells London in September 2006 and it was also in Australia and New Zealand during the summer of 2008.Why I want to document this:The first silent films were often described as early forms of ‘screendance’; a fact that is nearly forgotten. Our physical connection and muscular empathy to movements on screen is vital to our overall perception and wellbeing. There is an immense power and potential in the exploration of this medium and my three documentaries want to capture this. It serves as a purpose to document three of our most interesting contemporary video dance makers and raises awareness of their works.
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As you might know is currently the Edinburgh Festival on and so Dancebase put together an eclectic and exciting selection of performing artists and companies.More info of the upcoming shows can be found onhttp://www.dancebase.co.uk/and-then-some/View-all-products.htmlThe first show I went to see was Appel by Decalage. The performers Mickael Marso Riviere and Navala Chaudhari showed a sensual and exotic mix of bboying and capoeira accompanied by live music by Jason Kalidas using Bansuri and Tabla. As a viewer you feel like you are in a dessert with the sun rising revealing Chaudhari in an elegant contortionist position before she starts gently moving like a snake across the sand. Then Riviere comes in with a powerful solo of break dancing moves before both performers break into a well-tuned duet.More about Decalage can be found onhttp://www.companydecalage.co.uk/and excerpt of the piece:http://www.dance-tech.net/video/company-decalage-appel-atMore than a year ago I produced the 3 minutes video TRENCH with Company Chameleon while they were still in development of their final piece Rites. Thus, it was very exciting to see the full 42 minutes performance of the complete piece Rites of which Trench is a section. Rites is a breath taking dance work that demands everything from its performers Anthony Missen and Kevin Turner. Drawn from personal experiences of what it means to be a man through showing the different stages that shape us: family, friends, happy moments and extreme situations. Company Chameleon really gives the audience something they can relate to and to take away with them.More about Company Chameleon onhttp://www.companychameleon.com/and excerpt of the piecehttp://www.dance-tech.net/video/rites-introduction-by-companyThe third piece I would like to mention is The Simplicity of Grasping Air by Lindsay John. A large floor and back wall projection of slowed down water footage by Jane McInally reminds of a moving Van Gogh's painting and works well with John's Butoh movements. The notes I took along the piece say that it is too slow for my awareness which I mean in a positive way because I feel I am there in every single bit of the moment. My mind is not rushing anywhere...it is just here. I have to really look how things evolve...Another article about Lindsay John's The Simplicity of Grasping Air can be found onhttp://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/46527-the-simplicity-of-grasping-air
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The UK’s National Student Film Festival. Created in 2004 as a platform to showcase student filmmaking talent from around the UK the festival recently enjoyed its fourth year with the 2008 event taking place over the weekend of the 29th February - 2nd March. Screentest will return to The University of Bristol Students’ Union, Bristol on the 6th - 8th March, 2009.Over the course of the weekend the year’s selection of student-made short films was shown alongside a great programme of guest speakers hosting Q & A sessions, talks and workshops. 2008 saw contributions from BAFTA award winner Luis Cook, young director Vicky Jewson as well as workshops hosted by Leopard Films, Jill Raistrick, David Bekkevold, Alex Kirkland and NFTS talent scout Paul Green. Previous years have seen guests such as Director Ken Loach, Actress Emily Watson, Screenwriter David Nicholls, Chairman of BAFTA Duncan Kenworthy, and UK Film Council Chairman Stewart Till.http://www.screentestfest.org.uk/
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TRENCH is screening athttp://www.movementonscreen.org.uk/moves returns to Manchester and the UK from 23 to 28 April 2009.Now in its 5th year, moves is established as the largest exhibition platform in the UK for experimental short film and new media with a unique focus on movement on screen, exploring new ways of telling stories through films, installations and screen-based works.2008 was the year of music, questioning the interaction of sound and movement on screen; moves09 will be looking at stories beyond movement, exploring the narrative possibilities of movement on screen through screenings, installations, live events, open-source forums…moves is the largest exhibition platform in the UK for experimental short film and new media with a unique focus on movement on screen, exploring new ways of telling stories through films, installations and screen-based works.Wherever you live, you can catch moves:in Manchester and the North West with a 6-day festival exploring movement on screen through screenings, installations, workshops and open-space forums;in the UK on the BBC Big Screens and in selected venues such as Sadler's Wells and Glasgow CCA;worldwide with a year-round tour taking moves' favourites as far as Hungary, Russia and Brazil.
